This is the second post in a series on printing. Read the first post here.

So you’ve come up with a brilliant idea for a POP display, you’ve had designers like ours at Ardent perfect the structure so it showcases your product beautifully, you’ve chosen graphics that reinforce your marketing message and make everyone in your target demographic want to purchase your product. Now you have to make the big choice: what printing process should you use to get the best results for your display?

For commercial printing, you have a number of options, including: lithography (also called offset printing or litho printing), flexo printing, and digital printing. Below is a primer on flexo printing, so you know when to choose flexo and why.

Flexo Printing

Flexo printing is essentially printing via a giant rolling rubber stamp. Or, more specifically, a fountain cylinder first rolls in a pan of ink. That cylinder moves against what’s call an anilox roll, which is another cylinder that’s used to evenly distribute the ink. The anilox roll evenly places ink on the plate cylinder, which holds the print plate with your image. Unlike lithographic print plates, which are made of aluminum, flexo print plates are made of a soft, flexible rubber or polymer. Once the anilox roll evenly puts ink on the plate cylinder that’s wrapped with your print plate, your substrate moves between the plate cylinder and an impression cylinder, directly transferring your image to the material. For visual clarification, refer to the diagram below:

Flexo printing is a less expensive process than lithography. However, it has some limitations. Flexo printing is a 1-color process–although you can print multiple colors, it has to be done by blocking out space on your substrate and printing one color at a time. Additionally, with flexo printing, you are usually printing at about 65 dpi (dots per inch– it’s a measurement that refers to how detailed and clear your image is). Litho printing can go up to 330 dpi.

Overall, flexo printing is best used for large washes of color on corrugated displays. Because you can print directly onto the corrugated, it also saves you the trouble of having to mount your images onto your displays. Pretty efficient, no?

Coming up, more information on digital printing and how to prepare your art files for the best printing results!

The Martha Stewart & Avery home office line has launched! As you may remember from an earlier post on this project (read about it here), Ardent was chosen to design and manufacture custom gondolas for Martha Stewart and Avery’s new line of home office goods in over 1,450 Staples stores. Throughout November, December, and January, we’ve been designing, manufacturing (in 18 factories!), shipping, and providing 24-hour assistance to the installers across the country putting this display together.

Well, it looks like all of our hard work has paid off. This week, I was lucky enough to attend the press event for Martha’s line in Staples’ Manhattan flagship store. The event was beautiful:

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True to the good taste of Martha’s team, the event featured sparkling cider with freshly cut pineapple, goodie bags, and bouquets of red carnations. Staples president Demos Parneros and Avery-Dennison VP Timothy Bond were also at the event, giving speeches and admiring the product line.

We received great compliments on the gondola, as well as the signage (Ardent printed the banners for the product launch), but the most flattering moment of all was seeing Martha next to our display! (Check out the final photo from the Associated Press.)